“What’s good about actors is – and no offence – but they don’t care about an audience!”
Graham Norton made a trip over to the United States to promote his show, Queen of the Universe, and told Seth Meyers how he gets his talk show guests to reveal their most embarrassing stories.
The secret, Norton said, was putting them on a couch beside other actors, singers and celebrities.
“They might not care as much about the audience, but they do care about each other,” Norton commented. “So if they see an actor tell a funny story, you can see them seething – ‘Jesus Christ, I have a funny story!’
“So the stakes get higher and higher and sometimes we do get terrible stories. I’m like, ‘Don’t tell that on television!'”
The popular talk show host, who has had a long-running series on the BBC, also told Meyers of the one guest he has had on that has never lost his lustre, or dropped character.
Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly attend the screening of “Top Gun: Maverick” during the 75th annual Cannes film festival. Graham Norton believes he is one of the last big Hollywood movie stars. (Photo by Toni Anne Barson/FilmMagic)Graham Norton on Tom Cruise
For his BBC talk show, Graham Norton has welcomed the biggest and brightest stars from the worlds of TV, music and cinema.
Asked if one guest coming on the show would still have an aura about them, or make him nervous, he replied:
“Back-stage, we were talking about Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise is one of those people… you know, normally when they come through that door and sit down, pretty quickly it is just a man in a jacket or some woman in a frock, and that’s the end of it.
“Tom Cruise, with him you can never get past the fact that it is Tom Cruise, and he just remains Tom Cruise throughout the interview. The audience likes that and I like that. The other guests, you can tell they’re all a bit starry about him, and there aren’t that many people like that. That old star system has kind of gone.”
Considering the female version of someone that just oozes star power, Norton suggested Jennifer Lopez.
“It’s so funny that she played a maid [in the movie, Maid in Manhattan],” he joked. “Yeah, right!”
Graham Norton has previously revealed that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was the worst guest he ever had on his talk show.
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